The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Hazardous Waste Ground-Water Task Force (HWGWTF) is conducting under its Facility Assessment Program groundwater sampling at 58 sites where commercial land disposal facilities are located to determine whether or not these facilities are contaminating groundwater with hazardous wastes. Laboratory analyses of groundwater samples from these sites are being performed for organic compounds and metal, inorganic, and indicator parameters. This paper provides an overview of initial quality assurance (QA) activities applied to these analyses.

A Data Evaluation Committee (DEC) consisting of HWGWTF members from USEPA headquarters, regional offices, and Office of Research and Development (ORD) laboratories provides QA overview for Facility Assessment Program activities. The DEC developed a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) specifically for the Facility Assessment Program. The QAPP establishes data quality objectives (DQO) which define the quality of the data desired from the groundwater sampling and analytical efforts. These DQO address data accuracy, precision, representativeness, completeness, and comparability. The QAPP also defines roles and responsibilities of HWGWTF members and contractors and procedures to be followed in achieving the DQO.

This paper provides an overview of QA activities performed by the HWGWTF DEC and technical support contractors during evaluation of the first six facilities sampled under the program (Phase I) and provides examples of improvements planned for subsequent QA efforts based on experience gained during Phase I. The evaluation of analytical quality control (QC) data and laboratory performance through integration of information from performance evaluation samples, analytical chemistry audits, statistical summaries, and control charts for analytical data generated by Superfund Contract Laboratories is described.